Know in every pore and cell of your body this is the last, the final music

*Glenn Gould performed The Goldberg Variations in 1955 and again in 1981. He died on October 4, 1982.

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The fall, arguably Canada’s most beautiful season belongs to Glenn Gould. He was born in September and died in October.

In my college-teaching years, I had a Latin-American student who came to Canada because of Glenn Gould. She didn’t know very much about Canada, but she played classical piano and she knew enough to know that Glenn Gould came from Canada. She wanted to live in the same country as her idol.

In my teaching years, I also taught alongside an American, the son of a marine, who came from North Carolina. He came to Canada to study medieval literature in a doctoral programme at the University of Toronto and because it was the home city of Glenn Gould. The Goldberg Variations, both early and late, were a necessary experience he treated himself to on a daily basis.

To honour my former student and my old colleague, I too find myself frequently listening to Gould. My preference is the 1981 version of the Variations.

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@AndreSobolewski One can only claim "we had no choice" for so long. There has to be another way - and that is a solution for city planners, environmentalists, engineers to work on. But surely, after so many raw sewage dumps someone has to make put this on the agenda somewhere.

@AndreSobolewski To clarify Andre, the claim I made was that this dumping has happened before and in 2015 mayor Denis Coderre at the time said he "had no choice" - that the infrastructure just wasn't there. This happened again in Feb of this year - is now happening once again in Longueuil.